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Luke Harding off his meds again: Crimea and Russia

Kit
OffGuardian
Wed, 10 Aug 2016 08:49 UTC
Modern mass-media is replete with instances of cognitive dissonance. However none can so perfectly encapsulate the madness of the pretend world so many "journalists" now live in better, than these two offerings from the always entertaining Luke Harding.

It has been reported that Russia has beefed up security on the Ukraine-Crimea border, in response to an apparent attack by SBU agents that resulted in the deaths of 2 Russian servicemen, there are also fears Kiev may try to disrupt the September 18th parliamentary elections.

Luke's reaction to this, on twitter, was as balanced and reasonable as anybody who reads his articles would expect (at least, the ones he hasn't stolen from other people):



Comment: "Classic Fakery"!? How can any responsible person with a soapbox read an article and immediately declare such a thing to their audience with zero evidence? Modern media is absolutely bottom of the barrel.


Comment: Despite his mental instability, Luke's courage is to be saluted. With the Kremlin spies doggedly on his tail, KGB bugs in his socks and polonium in every cup of tea he sips, he still tirelessly beavers away pumping out the Putin-hate daily. However, Luke, you get an F for journalism.

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Bad Guys

Defense consultant: Turkey's new realist foreign policy will result in 'serious crisis' for NATO


Sputnik
Sat, 20 Aug 2016 13:31 UTC
putin erdogan
Concerned about the security implications of last month's coup attempt in Turkey for his country, Czech defense consultant Frantisek Sulc worries that Ankara's move toward a realist approach to foreign policy could result in the most serious crisis NATO has faced in a quarter century, possibly leading to the alliance's collapse.

Commenting on the Czech media's discussion of the July 15 coup attempt in Turkey in a piece for natoaktual.cz, which touts itself as the "Official Portal of the NATO Information Center" in the Czech Republic, Sulc warned that although a great deal of time has been spent analyzing the "threat of Islamism directed from Turkey to Europe...much less has been said about the large and long-term consequences of the coup," particularly for the NATO alliance.

In fact, he suggested, the fallout from the failed coup, "together with other events (for example, a US reevaluation of policy toward NATO, a serious crisis in Asia alongside the one in Europe, further aggressive moves by Vladimir Putin, etc.), could lead to the most serious existential crisis the alliance has faced over the past 25 years."

Choosing not to get into the details of what exactly these so-called 'aggressive moves' by Moscow might be, Sulc emphasized instead that these consequences of this confluence of threats "will not bode well for Central Europe," which "in the early 1990s chose two organizations: NATO and the EU as the basis for security and economic stability. Over the last 25 years, these organizations have been shining examples of liberalism, or rather neo-liberalism."

Comment: In the final paragraphs we see exactly what this defense consultant has in mind: more fear-mongering, more war, and more terror in order to feed the 'defense industry'. Further reading:

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Wall Street

Bank of Ireland and RBS to charge negative interest rates to large depositors

Tim Worstall
Forbes
Sat, 20 Aug 2016 14:03 UTC
Bank of Ireland
© Frantzesco Kangaris/Bloomberg
The varied impacts of the European interest rates cuts are beginning to work their way through the system. In two different currencies, and thus two different monetary regimes, we now have banks charging large depositors for holding their deposits. We thus have evidence of one contention - that the zero lower bound is not actually zero and thus monetary policy is still effective. At a more detailed level this also pretty much kills the business models of a certain number of financial market players. As an example of that we'll use John Corzine and what went down at MF Global.

The news itself is that Bank of Ireland , in the eurozone, is going to charge large depositors for their privilege in placing money in the bank:
Richie Boucher has never been afraid to stand out from the crowd, which might explain Bank of Ireland's decision to begin charging large corporate and institutional customers for holding deposits with the institution.

From October 10th, a rate of 0.1 per cent will be charged to customers who hold deposits of €10 million or more with the bank or have multiple deposit accounts with it, regardless of the sums involved. It is thought to affect only a small number of customers.
Bank of Ireland has told customers that this is the result of the European Central Bank's decision earlier this year to levy a negative interest rate of 0.4 per cent on overnight deposits.
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Info

Pentagon withdraws assets from Riyadh to Bahrain amid mounting death toll in Saudi-led Yemen war


RT
Sat, 20 Aug 2016 13:55 UTC
US Trident military exercises
© AP Photo/ Steven Governo
The US forces assisting the Saudi-led coalition in coordinating air strikes in Yemen have largely withdrawn from Riyadh in an apparent move to distance themselves from the mounting civilian death toll in the 17-month long conflict, Reuters has learned.

In addition to withdrawing air support personnel, Lieutenant Ian McConnaughey, a US Navy spokesman in Bahrain told Reuters that the Pentagon also "sharply reduced" its "Joint Combined Planning Cell" (JCPC) staff to under five people.

The JCPC, which was established in March last year when the Saudi-initiated its air campaign, at its peak devoted some 45 members to coordinate US military and intelligence support with Riyadh.
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Bad Guys

Reality check Ukraine: West only needs you to be 'hotbed of chaos' for Russia

Translated by Borislav
South Front
Sat, 20 Aug 2016 13:17 UTC
Ukraine propaganda neo NAzi slaves
Originally appeared at A-specto, translated by Borislav exclusively for SouthFront

"Exactly now is the time to invest in Ukraine" - stated Petro Poroshenko to potential foreign investors. Then he added that everything in Ukraine "will be alright". Poroshenko believes that investors from Germany and France will support the independence of the Ukrainian state from Russia, and will therefore help the economy. Only a modestly intellectual ruler can have such illusions. Poroshenko clearly doesn't understand that in politics there is no emotion, only interests. And the only US interest towards Ukraine, is that its territory remain a constant hot spot on the border of Russia. Nobody has the intention of turning Ukraine, half of which is pro-Russian, into a showcase of the European standard of living. US strategy has never been in this direction. On the contrary, the separation of Ukraine from the Russian flesh, is aimed at chaos and accumulation of tension. Which is exactly what is happening.

Everything is going according to plan, except that Poroshenko and the stupefied junta in Ukraine are up to their teeth in a cesspool of delusions. The president-maniac continues to convince the population that the Ukrainian currency - the hryvna - will soon strengthen and they will find many jobs and Ukraine will get rid of debt. At the same time this year, the Ukrainians have lost a billion and a half dollars, just from the commercial restrictions that Russia imposed (data delivered by the Deputy Minister of economy of Ukraine, Natalia Mikolskaya).

Although he wanted to reassure his countrymen, President Poroshenko instead shocked them by declaring that if the the situation in the southeast becomes worse, he will be forced to declare martial law and a mobilization. Currently, serving in the Ukrainian army has become nightmare number one for every male citizen. Men flee en masse and no one cares about protecting the homeland, except armchair political pundits that plot on how to exterminate Russians, hoping to be encouraged by the global masters.

Comment: Further reading:
Bulgaria, one of the EU countries, has received a banning in Brussels about the implementation of a joint gas pipeline with Russia. Brussels takes care of the economic interests of Ukraine. In the case of the Northern or Southern gas pipeline strategy, the Ukrainian budget is losing the estimated minimum of 2 billion dollars a year. This is probably an underestimation, since this includes only the direct losses, and the counting is based on the current tariffs for the gas transportation, which Ukraine increases annually. Not less tangible are the political losses: Ukraine will lose the status of transit country, and it will not be able to blackmail the Russian threats in order to cut off the gas supplies to Europe.

Evolution of 'Turk Stream': Western geopolitics vs. Russian energy projects


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Quenelle

Russia is effective in Syria because it is actually fighting Islamist terrorism

Adam Garrie
The Duran
Sat, 20 Aug 2016 12:57 UTC
syrians love putin
Russia's intervention in Syria is effective because it is properly focused on fighting Islamist terrorism is carried out in cooperation with the Syrian government. The West's intervention is wrong and ineffective because it is targeted at the Syrian government and tries to distinguish between one Jihadi terrorist and another.

Whilst Russia has concluded the major part of her involvement in Syria, there are still Russian special forces and air support aiding the war against ISIS and other terror groups in the civil war. Simultaneously, the air forces of America, Britain and France are also bombing sites in Syria, yet the NATO side refuses to cooperate let alone coordinate with Russia.

There are several reasons for this. First of all, whilst Russia has vowed to use her resources to fight every terrorist group in Syria, the NATO side only purport to be fighting ISIS.

Now this is not as simple as it seems. Whilst ISIS is the most well known and largest terrorist group in Syria, there are several other groups of varying sizes who are ISIS in all but name, and occasionally are ISIS in name.

Comment: Further reading: The Syrian and Iraqi wars: Washington's myth of Sunni/Shia sectarianism

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Chart Bar

Evolution of 'Turk Stream': Western geopolitics vs. Russian energy projects

Silvia Vittoria Missotti
Fort Russ
Sat, 20 Aug 2016 13:05 UTC
Putin Erdogan
© dpa
On August 9th, there was a meeting between the Presidents of Russia and Turkey. In general, for the package of proposals for a new Russian-Turkish rapprochement, the important part is played by the energy projects. Some experts in Russia believe that those are actually the main reason of the unexpected reconciliation with Ankara, and perhaps the only one. They expressed with confidence that, after a first conflict because of the Russian bomber shot down by the Turkish Air Force, a telephone conversation between the two Presidents established a meeting at a time when Erdogan was prepared to make concessions in the energy project.

The failed coup attempt in Turkey and the instant support of President Putin to the Turkish counterpart contributed to outline the warming relations. As a result, as some Russian experts who shared this opinion believe, the meeting on August 9th in Saint Petersburg was really a strategic victory for Russia.

The essence of the matter is briefly as follows. Already after the first "Maidan" (the Orange Revolution in 2004) and the deterioration of the relations between Russia and Ukraine, the situation made seriously think about a diversification of gas supplies to the European consumers. Thus was born the project "North Stream", which transported the gas from Russia, passing firstly through the Ukrainian gas transportation system (GTS).
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Jet5

US to spend nearly $1 billion to build air force facilities across 26 states


Sputnik
Sat, 20 Aug 2016 12:23 UTC
US F15 fighter jet
© AP
The US Air Force ordered $950 million in design and construction services for facilities stretching across 26 US states over the next seven years, the Department of Defense said in a press release.

The work will be performed in the US states of Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania, the Defense Department said.

The contract will also cover construction projects in the states of Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin, and is expected to be complete by August 18, 2023, the announcement added.

"BTA/ONYX Group has been awarded a contract... with a combined program ceiling of $950 million for design and construction services," the release stated on Friday.
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Info

Turkish parliament ratifies reconciliation treaty with Israel


Sputnik
Sat, 20 Aug 2016 12:18 UTC
Turkey leaders
© REUTERS/ Kayhan Ozer
Turkey's parliament, the Grand National Assembly, ratified on Saturday a bill on the normalization of the country's ties with Israel, ending a six-year period of tense relations, media reported.

The normalization agreement, according to the Haaretz newspaper, requires Israel to transfer $20 million to Turkey within 25 days for a 2010 raid on a Turkish flag-bearing vessel that killed ten Turkish activists.

Relations between Israel and Turkey deteriorated after the Freedom Flotilla incident in May 2010, when a convoy of six ships, including one sailing under a Turkish flag, tried to approach the Gaza Strip with humanitarian aid and activists on board. The flotilla was blocked and stormed by Israeli forces.
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Info

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch publish biased report on eastern Ukraine, making them accomplices to human rights violations

Roger Annis
New Cold War.org
Fri, 19 Aug 2016 00:00 UTC
HRW Propoganda
© Russian-InsiderWhen a true photo is used for a Human Rights lie
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch issued a report on July 21, 2016 on the human rights situation in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine. The report can only be described as covering up the ongoing war crimes being perpetrated by the governing regime in Kyiv, Ukraine since it launched its 'Anti-Terrorist Operation' (civil war) in April 2014. The war was launched in order to crush resistance in Donbass to the illegal coup d'etat and seizure of power in Kyiv in February 2014 by the movement calling itself 'Maidan'.

Coincidentally, artillery and other attacks by Maidan Ukraine against the rebel Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics in Donbass intensified during the past two months, the very time frame in which the human rights defenders were preparing their report for publication.
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